Street-car.



No. 688,180. Patented Dec. 3, I901.

- P. M. KLING.

STREET GAB.

(Application med Jan. 7, 1901.) (N o M u [1 el i I T m: norms PEYCRSco.. morcmimu, WASHINGTON, u. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER M. KLING, OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.

STREET-CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 688,180, dated December3, 1961.

Application filed January 7, 1901. Serial No. 42,301. (No model.)

To all whom it nwoy concern.-

Be it known that I, PETER M. KLING, a citiz'en of the United States,residing at Elizabeth, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Street-Cars, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification.

Heretofore it has been the practice in building street-cars to employ aninner and an outer truss extending lengthwise of the car for the purposeof adding strength and rigidity to the framework. The object of myinvention is to dispense with the use of these trusses without alteringor changing the appearance of the car, While at the same time the costof the car is reduced. I have discovered that the use of these trussescan be dispensed with and the car made sufficiently strong and rigid byemploying metal panels for the sides of the car instead of using woodpanels, as heretofore.

My invention consists in features of novelty hereinafter fullydescribed, and pointed out in the claim.

Figure I is a side View of a street-car embodying my invention. Fig. 11is an enlarged detaiIl vertical section taken on the line II II, Fig.

Referring to the drawings, 1 represents the platforms of the car; 3, thefender-rail; 4, the belt-rail band; 5, the upper outside panel; 6,thelower outside panel; 7, the panel-furring, and 8 one of the outsidesills of the car-body. The panel 5 is formed so as to be convex on itsouter surface, and the panel 6 is formed so as to be concave on itsouter surface, as usual. Heretofore these panels have been made of wood,which thus necessitated the use of outer and inner trusses in order tostrengthen and support the framework of the car-body. As stated, I havediscovered that by making these panels of metal they sufficien tlystrengthen and support the body without the use of trusses, and by thusdispens ing with the trusses the cost of the car is reduced, while itsappearance is maintained. The panels may be attached to the belt-railband, to the panel-furring, and to the sill by means of screws, asshown, or they may be otherwise connected.

My invention may be carried into efiect with very light cars by makingone of the panels of metal, while the other panel is made of wood, asheretofore.

Each panel is made of a continuous sheet of metal that extends from endto end of the car-body, and while I have shown the panels as being madein separate pieces yet they may, if desired, be made in one piece.

I claim as my invention- As a new article of manufacture, a streetcarbuilt without the usual trusses and hav-' ing upper and lower panelscomposed respectively of convex and concave sheets of metal attached tothe beltrail band, the panelfurring and the car-sill substantially asand for the purposes described.

PETER M. KLING.

In presence of- E. S. KNIGHT, N. V. ALEXANDER.

